On Monday 5th September, thinkingwomen met in Manchester to hear from Judith Kurutac on the issues of labour and birth in the UK. Judith's key message was that women, pregnant women, need to recognise that they are in control . They are the only ones who know what they want and they need to make sure they get it. Midwives and doctors (and mothers and friends) can advise but we must each make decisions for ourselves. However, there are real problems in achieving this. Women want to get to know the midwives that will be there during labour but there are not enough to go round. Women want midwives to be engaged in the birth (not passive present but 'active') but midwives worry that they will say or do the wrong thing. There has been a disconnect in responsibility where women are expecting the health professionals to tell them what to do rather than listening to their own bodies and telling the professionals what is happening and how to support them. We need to have more confidence in ourselves as active, fit, able, capable women who can get down to the animalistic reality that labour is - the grunting and panting and pushing, the poo, the blood, the fluid. And of course that wonderful moment when your baby sprawls out, arms outstretched, reaching for you, making it all worthwhile. Perhaps we need to have courses like the Haka (select 'Watch the Haka'), the New Zealand Rugby team's warm up dance, where we grunt and moan. Or do yoga, I suppose..! Top tips for Locating your power are: - Have confidence in yourself - Believe that you will get through it (because you will) - Be active, move about - Don't be afraid to ask for what you want (including changing midwives if you don't want the one you've been assigned) - Take each contraction at a time - Try to abstract the painful sensation - imagine it as shapes or colours A good session, heavily populated with pregnant ladies. Let's hope they located some of their power.

Inspired by Jonathon's response to my previous post, I thought I would share more of my anthropology MA. I'm hoping to do my thesis on the techniques people use to rationalise their decisions in morally ambiguous situations e.g. how do people who experiment on animals process their activities so that they feel ok about it. I have several challenges to think about before I settle on finding people to participate in my study. These are as follows: - I do not want to make a judgement myself on what is morally wrong or right. What impartial measure can I use to define when a situation is morally ambiguous (yeah, right, when is anything ever impartial!). I thought I might use Ethical Consumer's assessment of the FTSE 100 and choose companies at the bottom and approach people who work in them (e.g. Tescos). How/What else can I use to justify a morally ambiguous situation outside the context of my own subjectivity? - What are the different areas where people are particularly morally challenged? Military, multinationals (ha ha), WTO/IMF, politics, medicine, urban planners. I know we all are to some degree. - What if no-one wants to talk to me about this in the context of their job? What might incentivise them? Any opinions? Jess